


New Houses and New Families

by okkaaaaayyy



Category: Over the Garden Wall (Cartoon)
Genre: Divorce, F/M, Step-parents, Step-siblings, The Unknown (Over the Garden Wall)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-13 23:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11770659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/okkaaaaayyy/pseuds/okkaaaaayyy
Summary: Wirt doesn't want to accept the divorce. He doesn't want to accept Greg, or Greg's dad. He doesn't want to accept the change.Getting sucked into the Unknown puts all of it on hold.





	New Houses and New Families

Greg was not Wirt’s brother.

Step-brother, maybe, but even that involved too much of the word brother.

And Greg’s dad was not his dad, or anything like his dad.

And above all, Wirt didn’t _want_ Greg’s dad to ever be his dad, or for Greg to ever be his _real_ brother. 

He’s being selfish, he knows. Everyone else is trying to move on, trying to be happy. Greg’s dad is obviously trying to get closer to him, to be more like a father figure. Trying to please him even if Wirt is only ever distant to him in return. His mom is so tired, he can tell, but she loves Greg’s dad. He makes her less tired. And Greg is just happy because happy is what Greg is. He more than welcoming to someone he can call “mom.”

He’s being selfish, holding them back, but he does it anyway.

Because he remembers his dad when he looks at Greg’s dad. He remembers how his mom and dad would fight every night, how he could always hear it from his bedroom, and how he would always feel like crying because it _hurt_ to hear them yell like that. He remembered how he would find his mom crying some nights, when his dad was outside or away. Her tears were like a slap to the face -painful-, and how he didn’t know how to begin to comfort her when he could feel his own eyes tear up. 

He remembers when his parents told him they were getting a divorce. He remembers selfishly wishing they would stay together, even if they were all unhappy. He had felt like crying again, but he hadn’t because they were both there, waiting for his response. 

He remembers his dad when he looks at Greg’s dad, and Wirt hates how he can see how Greg’s dad is. . . _better._

Because his own dad should be better at making his mom happy than some stranger. 

Even so, Wirt _tries_ to be happy in this new house with this new family, for his mom and her alone. His selfishness shouldn’t stop her from this. His mom deserves to be happy, even if he’s predominantly a mix of sad and angry.

And than contradicting his statement of trying to accept this new home, Wirt can’t call Greg his brother. 

He really has nothing against the younger, but Greg is something he wasn’t prepared for at all. In a way, he kind of represents all the change Wirt doesn’t want to accept yet. 

So he tries his best to ignore Greg, as mean as it sounds. Of course, it’s hard when Greg follows his new “big brother” around like a puppy. It’s hard when Greg’s exclaiming something about frogs in the middle of Wirt’s panic attack about that horribly embarrassing tape Sara has. 

And suddenly ignoring Greg is the least of his worries, because then there are cops, and they were slipping over the side of the cemetery wall, and then there were the bright lights of a train bearing down on them, and water all around him, _closing in, and-_

He and Greg were in the woods, and something feels distinctly _not right_ , but Wirt can’t quite place it. Either way, how they got here doesn’t matter nearly as much as getting the two - three, if you count Greg’s frog - of them back home.

And then there are creepy woodsmen, and talking birds, and a wolf with bright bright eyes. Pumpkin people and animals in clothes and warning of a horrible Beast. 

Wirt doesn’t even have time to think of step-fathers or new houses or new _brothers_ , but only because he’s so scared and so preoccupied with the seemingly impossible task of actually getting home. 

Beatrice makes it better for awhile, but then Beatrice betrays them, and Wirt feels the distinct and strong emotions of sadness and hopelessness and fear well up within him. He just wants to fall asleep and stay that way forever. He wants to put his responsibility away and ignore it. They’ll never get back home. The Beast, the woodsman, whatever it is, will catch them and eat them and that’ll be that. Wirt curls up under a tree and tries to sleep, thinking of home and monsters and Beatrice and his mom, and hardly notices Greg talking. He drifts off feeling cold, something snaking it’s way up his limbs, curling around him in a way that’s hard to ignore but easy to dismiss. 

*********

He wakes up and Greg’s gone.

He feels sick. Beatrice’s gone. Greg’s gone. There are brittle branches growing and twisting around him. The urge to sleep even longer, to never wake up, returns, but this time Wirt stands up. He has to find Greg. 

*********

He finds Beatrice before he finds Greg. He remembers her mother, telling him to give her a hug from the family. He holds her close as he shuffles forward.

They find Greg, covered in branches and roots, the Beats waiting, watching. All it is is a shadow, but it feels powerful, old. It’s eyes glow with some horrible pulsing power that makes Wirt shake. It offers him the lantern, but all Wirt wants is to go home, with his brother. He doesn’t want Greg to be trapped; _he_ doesn’t want to be trapped. 

He leaves the Beast to the woodsman and picks up Greg, knowing he’ll be home soon. He looks up at Beatrice, with the golden scissors, and thinks that maybe he’s not the only one. 

*********

Wirt wakes up to water all around him. Choking him, pulling him down. He remembers the branches spreading over him, the helplessness he felt even in sleep. He feels like that again - tired. Greg saves him again; Wirt only moves because he can see Greg sinking, and he can’t let that happen. 

Greg in tow, he pushes himself to the muddy shore. He hears his name echoing in his ears as he chokes on the water sloshing around in his lungs, hitting the ground with a dull thump. 

*********

Wirt blinks his eyes open to see Sara there. He’s so shocked to see a setting that isn’t the woods, and then he remembers, remembers, remembers, oh God, he remembers _everything._

“Greg!” He yells, because he remembers the tree growing over his brother, the Beast’s inhuman gaze, the dead weight of a small body underwater. 

But Greg is fine - better than Wirt anyway. And he can see his mom and Greg’s dad looking at him, concerned, hovering in wait until Sara leaves and they can take her place at his side. 

And he knows, he’s certainly not going to get happier with everything overnight, but with Greg hopping over to him with Jason Funderburker in hand, and his mom’s warm arms around him, and Greg’s dad clearly relieved expression, he thinks he may have been taking some things for granted. And he knows that he wants to be happy here, with a new family he can eventually come to terms with. 

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhhh, I literally just watched Over the garden Wall, and it was so great??? (even if I'm three years late!) So have this kinda vent thing that I actually really like!
> 
> Feel free to leave comments and stuff; I love reading what you have to say. :)


End file.
